Page 62 - JCAU-6-3

Journal of Chinese
Architecture and Urbanism Age-friendly smart communities in Beijing

4.2. Local urban context based on POIs

Our analysis unveiled the relationship between housing
prices and the proportion of the elderly population.
Furthermore, we meticulously selected eight POI
indicators, offering a more granular perspective than
housing prices alone, to elucidate their interrelation
with the elderly population (Figure 5). These indicators
concurrently serve as proxies for community development.
Our categorization segregates them into two subsets — daily
and non-daily venues — within the context of smart aging
communities, contingent on their distinct geographical
spatial distribution attributes. Daily venues encompass
service-related POIs, commercial POIs, healthcare-related
POIs, and public-oriented POIs, exhibiting a relatively
uniform geographical dispersion pattern. Conversely,
Figure 3. Eligible communities in Beijing in this study (n = 2,634). non-daily venues encompass cultural POIs, leisure POIs,
Source: Drawing by the authors transit-related POIs, and governmental and organizational
POIs, exhibiting a more concentrated spatial distribution
pattern.

The aforementioned facilities are deemed more suitable
for building age-friendly smart communities due to their
essential needs and even distribution in space. As aging
data continues to rise, it is crucial to consider whether
modern online shopping, autonomous ticketing, and
other scenarios cater to the needs of elderly individuals in
their daily service and shopping scenarios. In healthcare
scenarios, it is necessary to increase the availability of
nursing homes and community volunteer care services
according to market demand while also installing adaptive
design features such as handles, wheelchair ramps, and
alarm buttons in public service facilities. In the future,
as these facilities and services continue to improve,
neighborhoods can gradually transform from being widely
covered to becoming higher quality and age-friendly smart
communities.
In the concentrated distribution of facilities and services,
cultural POIs include schools, science education centers,
training institutions, research institutions, exhibitions,
Figure 4. Location of identified communities. Source: Drawing by the libraries, and art galleries. As depicted in Figure 5C,
authors cultural facilities in Beijing are mainly distributed within
the Fourth Ring Road, with additional clusters in sub-
tend to be more expensive and host a higher number of center cities such as Tongzhou and university-clustered
elderly communities. The elderly population concentrates areas such as Wudaokou. The area with the highest density
around the Third Ring Road of Beijing, with a discernible of cultural facilities is Zhongguancun. Leisure facilities,
trend of outward expansion through the ring roads, including sports venues, entertainment venues, tourist
especially evident in the presence of super-large residential destinations, scenic spots, golf courses, restaurants, and
communities along the 5 Ring Road. However, the hotels, are agglomerated within the Fourth Ring Road,
th
proportion of the elderly population indicates that with a higher density observed in the East Third Ring Road
communities outside the Third Ring Roads harbor a higher (Figure 5D). Transit POIs, including parking lots, bus stops,
percentage of elderly residents, particularly notable on the subway stations, train stations, and airports, are clustered
city’s western side. around the Fourth Ring Road, with the highest density in

Volume 6 Issue 3 (2024) 7 https://doi.org/10.36922/jcau.1754